AMAZING, WHAT YOU CAN GET DONE IN 100 HOURS
House Democrats crossed the finished line Thursday in their race to pass a six-bill agenda in the first 100 hours of the new Congress--getting there 13 hours ahead of schedule.
…"We have delivered on our promise," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference…
--"House Democrats Beat 100-Hour Clock," Kasie Hunt, Associated Press, January 19, 2007
…The House has now approved legislation directly addressing public concerns: raising minimum wage, ethics reform, interest rate reductions on subsidized college loans and expanded federal support for stem cell research. It has put in place rule changes to promote fiscal responsibility and adopted recommendations from the 9/11 commission. Today, the House is expected to repeal tax breaks for oil companies…These achievements constitute a modest start toward a saleable centrist agenda for a party too often in the past labeled as extreme.
--"Happy Hours," Thomas B. Edsall, conservative columnist for the New York Times, January 18, 2007
House Rolls Back Oil company Subsidies
--headline, Associated Press, January 18, 2007
House Approves Page Program Reforms
--headline, Yahoo! News, Janaury 19, 2007
Senate Passes Vast Ethics Overhaul
--headline, New York Times, January 19, 2007
The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet. Like the rules changes the House adopted this month, it would bar lawmakers from taking free gifts, meals and entertainment. No longer would lobbyists and private interests be allowed to throw lavish parties honoring lawmakers at political conventions. Travel paid for by private interests would be dramatically curtailed. Lawmakers' cut-rate corporate jet flights would be grounded. The revolving door would be slowed, with lawmakers having to wait two years, not the current one year, before lobbying their former colleagues.
…Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, along with Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill), deserves credit for assembling and passing this package.
--"Real Ethics Reform," editorial, Washington Post, January 20, 2997
Calling it, "common sense legislation that helps to return money to the pockets of the American people and invests in our future and America's future," House majority leader Steny Hoyer announced the sweeping and historical passage of more than six major pieces of legislation passed by the new Democratic House and Senate, delivering on promises made by newly elected Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the day Democrats returned to power last November.
One of the most striking things about this amazing accomplishment is the new rush of emboldened moderate Republicans, who did not bend to pressures put on them by their conservative leadership to block or gum up the works of the legislation, but instead, joined their Democratic counterparts in bipartisan cooperation that has not been seen since George W. Bush assumed the imperial presidency, aided and abetted by a rubber-stamp Republican Congress six long years ago.
As pointed out by Bob Schieffer on CBS's "Face the Nation," today, one of the reasons Congress might start getting things done now is that, for the past Republican years, that rubber-stamp Congress and their non-veto president managed to pretend to govern this nation by only working two or three days a week.
That's right. Congress was only in session two or three days a week the whole past six years.
So the Democrats took over, and the first thing their leadership did was state that, from now on, Congress was going to have to behave like the rest of the country and work five days a week.
One outraged conservative Republican congressman stood up and loudly accused the Democrats of "hating the American family" because they were expecting him to work five days a week.
I'm sure that struck a real chord among all those hard-working American families with two-income households or single parents struggling to juggle job and children.
Speaker Pelosi set this goal for the new congress months ago, but then, the day the new Congress convened, Bush suddenly releases this so-called big new war strategy he has supposedly been thinking about for two whole months, which automatically dominates news coverage and threatens to overwhelm the new Congress with public demands that they deal with it.
I'm sure he and his handlers thought that this would effectively shut down the new Congress, thus presenting Republican opponents in '08 with an opportunity to claim that the Democrats reneged on their 100-hour promise.
Go ahead. Mess with a mom who had five babies in five years and raised them while being an active political volunteer. See where it gets ya.
The new congress is actively involved in dealing with the president's unpopular scheme to escalate the war. But that has not stopped them from getting the job done that the American people elected them to do.
Speaker Pelosi has done an outstanding job in her first 100 hours, as have all the Democrats who worked so hard--AND all those moderate Republicans who were willing, finally, to break out of the Nazi lock-step forced on them by Tom DeLay and his ilk during six miserable do-nothing years--who have also gotten serious about finally getting things done.
They say Bush's State of the Union address is going to be much shorter then usual, and that he is going to discuss things like global warming and health care.
Gee. I wonder why.
It's amazing what you can accomplish in 100 hours with drive, determination, hard work, and the integrity to listen to your constituents and deliver on promises, rather than using that same period of time for personal partisan attacks, power grabs, and the politicizing of life and death issues that effect all Americans.
When Republicans were the opposition party, they used their platform to practice politics of personal destruction, trying to bring down a president who had been elected twice and who enjoyed great popularity in the country. They wasted countless thousands of hours in hearings about the minutia of his sex life, baseless investigations of anyone who worked with or for him, and more than $70 million of taxpayer money and untold numbers of federal agents trying to ferret out any dirt whatsoever they could use in their hateful campaign. (I must say that one of the indirect strengths of Hillary Clinton now is that their tactics have bitten them in the ass--because no candidate ever in the history of our government has ever been more thoroughly investigated and vetted and found to be clean by a Congress bent on his or her ruination.)
When the Republican party then took over the White House, they spent the next six years squandering American treasure in pet projects, shutting down any substantive debate on any issue that could effect their constituents and those of the other half of Congress represented by the opposition party, forcing gridlock in the government, using the power of Congress to stick its nose where it did not belong--the name "Terry Schiavo" comes to mind--never once investigating or even questioning any policy coming out of the White House, no matter how misguided or dangerous, (kowtowing so completely that in six years their fearless leader has only used his veto once), creating a culture of corruption so crooked it sent several members to prison, whipping up war-frenzy that threatened to consume any opponent who questioned it without ever seriously investigating the claims being handed to them on a Rovian platter, and running up a $9 trillion debt while wasting a solid surplus and dragging the government so deep into the red its budget may never be balanced again.
Don't even talk to me about FOUR YEARS of war in Iraq, more than 3,000 American dead and tens of thousands wounded and no end in sight.
(Did you know, by the way, that part of this big "surge" is going to come from pulling AN ENTIRE BATTALION OF DESPERATELY NEEDED TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN SO THEY CAN BE SENT TO IRAQ? JUST WHEN THE SPRING THAW SETS THE TALIBAN FREE TO LAUNCH NEW ATTACKS ON A COUNTRY THAT IS FAR FROM SECURE? Where is THAT in the so-called "liberal media"? It's a fact. And the only people in congress who think this is a good idea are conservative Republicans and one pseudo-independent.)
But I digress.
There is no doubt that, all things considered, the Democrats in congress--new and old--are also politicians, and we will be able to learn much about them by how they choose to wield power, and how effectively they are able to govern.
But from what we have seen so far, the indications are that they do not wish to repeat mistakes of the past from either party; they are listening to the people who put them in office, and they are going about first, trying to clean up the terrible mess left by their predecessors, and second, starting a brand-new day of solving the country's problems in pragmatic, common sense ways we can all appreciate.
I lift my glass to you all--Democrats and common-sense non-ideological Republicans alike. For the first time in more than a decade--I can't wait to see what happens next.
…"We have delivered on our promise," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference…
--"House Democrats Beat 100-Hour Clock," Kasie Hunt, Associated Press, January 19, 2007
…The House has now approved legislation directly addressing public concerns: raising minimum wage, ethics reform, interest rate reductions on subsidized college loans and expanded federal support for stem cell research. It has put in place rule changes to promote fiscal responsibility and adopted recommendations from the 9/11 commission. Today, the House is expected to repeal tax breaks for oil companies…These achievements constitute a modest start toward a saleable centrist agenda for a party too often in the past labeled as extreme.
--"Happy Hours," Thomas B. Edsall, conservative columnist for the New York Times, January 18, 2007
House Rolls Back Oil company Subsidies
--headline, Associated Press, January 18, 2007
House Approves Page Program Reforms
--headline, Yahoo! News, Janaury 19, 2007
Senate Passes Vast Ethics Overhaul
--headline, New York Times, January 19, 2007
The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet. Like the rules changes the House adopted this month, it would bar lawmakers from taking free gifts, meals and entertainment. No longer would lobbyists and private interests be allowed to throw lavish parties honoring lawmakers at political conventions. Travel paid for by private interests would be dramatically curtailed. Lawmakers' cut-rate corporate jet flights would be grounded. The revolving door would be slowed, with lawmakers having to wait two years, not the current one year, before lobbying their former colleagues.
…Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, along with Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill), deserves credit for assembling and passing this package.
--"Real Ethics Reform," editorial, Washington Post, January 20, 2997
Calling it, "common sense legislation that helps to return money to the pockets of the American people and invests in our future and America's future," House majority leader Steny Hoyer announced the sweeping and historical passage of more than six major pieces of legislation passed by the new Democratic House and Senate, delivering on promises made by newly elected Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the day Democrats returned to power last November.
One of the most striking things about this amazing accomplishment is the new rush of emboldened moderate Republicans, who did not bend to pressures put on them by their conservative leadership to block or gum up the works of the legislation, but instead, joined their Democratic counterparts in bipartisan cooperation that has not been seen since George W. Bush assumed the imperial presidency, aided and abetted by a rubber-stamp Republican Congress six long years ago.
As pointed out by Bob Schieffer on CBS's "Face the Nation," today, one of the reasons Congress might start getting things done now is that, for the past Republican years, that rubber-stamp Congress and their non-veto president managed to pretend to govern this nation by only working two or three days a week.
That's right. Congress was only in session two or three days a week the whole past six years.
So the Democrats took over, and the first thing their leadership did was state that, from now on, Congress was going to have to behave like the rest of the country and work five days a week.
One outraged conservative Republican congressman stood up and loudly accused the Democrats of "hating the American family" because they were expecting him to work five days a week.
I'm sure that struck a real chord among all those hard-working American families with two-income households or single parents struggling to juggle job and children.
Speaker Pelosi set this goal for the new congress months ago, but then, the day the new Congress convened, Bush suddenly releases this so-called big new war strategy he has supposedly been thinking about for two whole months, which automatically dominates news coverage and threatens to overwhelm the new Congress with public demands that they deal with it.
I'm sure he and his handlers thought that this would effectively shut down the new Congress, thus presenting Republican opponents in '08 with an opportunity to claim that the Democrats reneged on their 100-hour promise.
Go ahead. Mess with a mom who had five babies in five years and raised them while being an active political volunteer. See where it gets ya.
The new congress is actively involved in dealing with the president's unpopular scheme to escalate the war. But that has not stopped them from getting the job done that the American people elected them to do.
Speaker Pelosi has done an outstanding job in her first 100 hours, as have all the Democrats who worked so hard--AND all those moderate Republicans who were willing, finally, to break out of the Nazi lock-step forced on them by Tom DeLay and his ilk during six miserable do-nothing years--who have also gotten serious about finally getting things done.
They say Bush's State of the Union address is going to be much shorter then usual, and that he is going to discuss things like global warming and health care.
Gee. I wonder why.
It's amazing what you can accomplish in 100 hours with drive, determination, hard work, and the integrity to listen to your constituents and deliver on promises, rather than using that same period of time for personal partisan attacks, power grabs, and the politicizing of life and death issues that effect all Americans.
When Republicans were the opposition party, they used their platform to practice politics of personal destruction, trying to bring down a president who had been elected twice and who enjoyed great popularity in the country. They wasted countless thousands of hours in hearings about the minutia of his sex life, baseless investigations of anyone who worked with or for him, and more than $70 million of taxpayer money and untold numbers of federal agents trying to ferret out any dirt whatsoever they could use in their hateful campaign. (I must say that one of the indirect strengths of Hillary Clinton now is that their tactics have bitten them in the ass--because no candidate ever in the history of our government has ever been more thoroughly investigated and vetted and found to be clean by a Congress bent on his or her ruination.)
When the Republican party then took over the White House, they spent the next six years squandering American treasure in pet projects, shutting down any substantive debate on any issue that could effect their constituents and those of the other half of Congress represented by the opposition party, forcing gridlock in the government, using the power of Congress to stick its nose where it did not belong--the name "Terry Schiavo" comes to mind--never once investigating or even questioning any policy coming out of the White House, no matter how misguided or dangerous, (kowtowing so completely that in six years their fearless leader has only used his veto once), creating a culture of corruption so crooked it sent several members to prison, whipping up war-frenzy that threatened to consume any opponent who questioned it without ever seriously investigating the claims being handed to them on a Rovian platter, and running up a $9 trillion debt while wasting a solid surplus and dragging the government so deep into the red its budget may never be balanced again.
Don't even talk to me about FOUR YEARS of war in Iraq, more than 3,000 American dead and tens of thousands wounded and no end in sight.
(Did you know, by the way, that part of this big "surge" is going to come from pulling AN ENTIRE BATTALION OF DESPERATELY NEEDED TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN SO THEY CAN BE SENT TO IRAQ? JUST WHEN THE SPRING THAW SETS THE TALIBAN FREE TO LAUNCH NEW ATTACKS ON A COUNTRY THAT IS FAR FROM SECURE? Where is THAT in the so-called "liberal media"? It's a fact. And the only people in congress who think this is a good idea are conservative Republicans and one pseudo-independent.)
But I digress.
There is no doubt that, all things considered, the Democrats in congress--new and old--are also politicians, and we will be able to learn much about them by how they choose to wield power, and how effectively they are able to govern.
But from what we have seen so far, the indications are that they do not wish to repeat mistakes of the past from either party; they are listening to the people who put them in office, and they are going about first, trying to clean up the terrible mess left by their predecessors, and second, starting a brand-new day of solving the country's problems in pragmatic, common sense ways we can all appreciate.
I lift my glass to you all--Democrats and common-sense non-ideological Republicans alike. For the first time in more than a decade--I can't wait to see what happens next.
posted by Deanie Mills at 1:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home